Japanese Yakuza mafia leader Takeshi Ebisawa has pleaded guilty to multiple charges of possession and trafficking of nuclear weapons. He now faces up to 20 years in prison for international trafficking of nuclear material.
Japanese authorities have discovered that Ebisawa is part of a large-scale criminal network that spans Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and the United States and transports drugs and weapons across Southeast Asia.
The mobster was also looking for missiles used in the US-Afghan war to sell to armed groups in Burma and intended to buy these missiles in exchange for amphetamines and heroin.
In court, Takeshi Ebisawa pleaded guilty to six charges: conspiracy to traffic nuclear materials, actual trafficking of nuclear materials, money laundering and three charges related to drugs and firearms.
In response, the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Anne Milgram, of the United States Department of Justice, said in a statement published on the US government website that the investigation exposed the "shocking depths" of international organized crime, "from trafficking in nuclear materials to supplying the drug trade and arming violent insurgents."
"DEA remains positioned to relentlessly pursue anyone who threatens our international security, regardless of where they operate. Protecting the American people from this evil will always be DEA's top priority," Anne Milgram said.
Prosecutions against nuclear material traffickers are rare, as the business is tightly controlled. Only nine countries in the world have access to such weapons and the nuclear energy industry is heavily regulated.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has recorded 4,243 incidents of illegal activity involving nuclear material since 1993.
